Salvesen Graham combine comfort and elegance in a Mayfair apartment

Everybody knows that first impressions count. So when interior designers Nicole Salvesen and Mary Graham, co-founders of design studio Salvesen Graham, were tasked with a total redesign and reconfiguration of a top floor flat in Mayfair, their starting point was to go big on the entrance hall. Previously this was a small, unprepossessing, single-height space, but as Nicole explains, “we wanted to create the sweeping staircase and a grand-feeling entrance hall as an unexpected feature.” The architect James Howard of Tim Flynn Architects designed the new double height space while Nicole and Mary collaborated on the design of the elegant white Emperador marble staircase. Light pours down on to the black and white marble floor from the roof-light above and adds to the wow factor; that ‘wow’ is further enhanced by the approach through a staircase off the main building stairwell, which is covered in a pretty saffron Fromental wallcovering patterned with ornate peonies.

This was a fun project for the design duo, who say their clients, an American couple whose main home is just outside Charlotte,  North Carolina, gave them a pretty free rein with the design. The flat is the client’s London pied-à-terre and Mary and Nicole have given it a homely English layered look whilst also reflecting the grandeur of its surroundings. Hyde Park and the streets of Mayfair can be glimpsed from some of the windows and the city’s skyline can be enjoyed from the newly created sunroom at the top of the building and the surrounding roof terrace. “The original terrace covered the whole footprint of the apartment but the new design creates zones for dining and for relaxing in the sunshine,’ says Mary. It is all surrounded with beautiful planting. The clients, who regularly come to London, enjoy relaxing up here when their eight year old daughter has gone to bed.

After the hard finishes of the hall, Mary and Nicole introduced a variety of textured fabrics in the sitting room. The client wasn’t initially confident with the use of bold colours so the pair kept the patterns tonal. “We chose a grasscloth walling to stop the walls from feeling flat in this very long room,” says Nicole.  The wallcovering from Phillip Jeffries is an excellent backdrop for all the contemporary British art, which was selected with the help of Rebecca Gordon Art Advisory. “We used a combination of smaller works of art but also larger pieces which, like the entrance hall, helps to give the impression of a really generous space,” says Nicole. Lottie Cole’s oversized painting Writer’s Block hangs by the fireplace and adds gravitas to the interior.

Even though they opened up the space in the living room they were keen to have separate zones. “The desk works to separate the spaces with the sitting room on one side and the kitchen on the other. There also wouldn’t have been enough room to have chairs all the way around the dining table so we designed a bench that could be anchored against the kitchen island for comfortable dining seating,” says Mary.